Ross

James Logan's "The Clans of the Scottish Highlands" was published to celebrate the centenary of the 1745 Jacobite Rising. It was illustrated by Robert R McIan.<br /> <br /> The Clan Ross takes its name from the province of Ross and is known in Gaelic as Clan Anrias or Andrias. The first known Earl of Ross was Malcolm, who died about 1150 and whose daughter married into the family of O'Beolain, the hereditary abbots of Applecross. The second known Earl was Fearchar Mac an t'sagairt (son of the priest) who was a powerful supporter of Alexander II and, for his services, was created Earl of Ross about 1234. William the 4th Earl led his clan at Bannockburn and Hugh the 5th Earl was killed at the Battle of Halidon Hill in 1333. A later successor died without male issue and succession passed through the female line, a circumstance which led to a struggle for the Earldom between the Lords of the Isles and the Regent Albany. On the forfeiture of the Lordship of the Isles in 1476, the Earldom of Ross became vested in the crown.<br /> <br /> Hugh Ross of Rariches, brother of the last Earl of Ross, obtained a charter of the lands of Balnagowan in 1374, and on him by clan law the chiefship devolved. For over three centuries the Rosses of Balnagowan remained the principal family of the clan, but the line came to an end with the death of David Ross of Balnagowan in 1711. The estate was settled on the family of Ross of Hawkhead, Renfrewshire, although there was no blood relationship between the two families. The chiefship passed to Ross of Pitcalnie. The Rosses supported the government during the Jacobite rebellions but later suffered heavily during the Clearances, when many emigrated across the Atlantic